One afternoon...

The sun was high in the sky and her feet were bare but she was not deterred by it. The eyes were fixated on the object of her desire. She could taste her own saliva which was sweet but had a taste of desire too. The target was perhaps quicker than
her, realizing this she increased her pace too, every step on the hot road making it more difficult for her to run faster and the pain in the feet urging her to stop and reconsider the decision to chase down the target.The conflict between pain and
desire was quite evident on her face. A speeding car was coming from the opposite direction, the girl was quite unaware of it. It seemed nothing could stop her get what she wanted. The road was quite wide and she was trying to cross which made her
vulnerable to the traffic from both the directions. Children at her age are quite unaware of the perils of the Indian traffic.It was beyond her faintest imagination that anyone could harm her,after all altercations happen at their age only if
there is any object of contention involved and she could contemplate none this time.Concentration perhaps was one other reason which made her oblivious to the traffic. The driver had seen the girl running across the road from a distance and was cautious. He wanted to steer a little towards his right and go past the little girl from her behind but he spotted quickly another car coming from the opposite direction. The driver mulled over 2 options- either to speed past her or wait for the girl cross the road. Apart from the reason of the first option being dangerous, he was intrigued by the true grit which possessed the girl. The girl, he thought, was spellbound. The driver observed that the girl was quite poor, her clothes were
dirty and her face was smeared by something white. He was amused how the little girl wore the dust on her face like a face powder and she was not at all bothered that it made her look disheveled. The driver could easily see the innocence twinkling in her eyes a virtue which he wished he had never lost. Adolescence is that stage of the life which uses innocence as a paint to colour the world around you as if it were a dream world even for those who are not financially blessed. Unaware that he was smiling at the little kid darting across, he slowly applied the brakes. He could see that girl had her arm stretched and her hand was tied in the shape of a fist, the determination and will ostensible in the tightness of her fist. His eyes swept across the road to his left and he saw the target the girl was after. She cried out something, her eyes pleading more than her words. The target was ahead of her, so the eyes were of no help but her words reached the target making it to slow down and stop eventually.Relief flashed on the face of the girl, she paused for a moment to wipe the sweat rolling across her face and started running again. Upon reaching the target, she held out her arms and unfolded her fist to show the coins ensconced in her hand. The target bent down, shuffled inside the basket and took out an ice cream before taking the money. The girl took
a hungry swipe at the ice cream, the driver was not sure if it were the coins or her face which was gleaming.